the
upper part about Trood's. Below, all the way down to Tanugamanono, you
met the bullock-carts coming and going, each with ten or twenty men to
attend upon it, and often enough with one of the overseers near. Quite a
far way off through the forest you could hear the noise of one of these
carts approaching. The road was like a bog, and though a good deal wider
than it was when you knew it, so narrow that the bullocks reached quite
across it with the span of their big horns. To pass by, it was necessary
to get into the bush on one side or the other. The bullocks seemed to
take no interest in their business; they looked angry and stupid, and
sullen beyond belief; and when it came to a heavy bit of the road, as
often as not they would stop.

As long as they were going, the Black Boys walked in the margin of the
bush on each side, pushing the cart-wheels with hands and shoulders, and
raising the most extraordinary outcry. It was strangely like some very
big kind of bird. Perhaps the great flying creatures that lived upon the
earth long before man came, if we could have come near one of their
meeting-places, would have given us just such a concert.

When one of the bullamacows[17] stopped altogether the fun was highest.
The bullamacow stood on the road, his head fixed fast in the yoke,
chewing a little, breathing very hard, and showing in his red eye that
if he could get rid of the yoke he would show them what a circus was.
All the Black Boys tailed on to the wheels and the back of the cart,
stood there getting their spirits up, and then of a sudden set to
shooing and singing out. It was these outbursts of shrill cries that it
was so curious to hear in the distance. One such stuck cart I came up to
and asked what was the worry. "Old fool bullamacow stop same place," was
the reply. I never saw any of the overseers near any of the stuck carts;
you were a very much better overseer than either of these.

While this was going on, I had to go down to Apia five or six different
times, and each time there were a hundred Black Boys to say
"Good-morning" to. This was rather a tedious business; and, as very few
of them answered at all, and those who did, only with a grunt like a
pig's, it was several times in my mind to give up this piece of
politeness. The last time I went down, I was almost decided; but when I
came to the first pair of Black Boys, and saw them looking so comic and
so melancholy, I began the business over again. T